Disclaimer is the new series on Apple TV+, an exciting thriller based on a 2015 book: the plot is not easy to follow, let’s have it explained in this full recap.
The director is Alfonso Cuarón, whose talent you already appreciated in movies like Roma, Gravity, and Children of Men; the cast is spectacular, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Louis Partridge, among others; and the story is based on the book of the same name written by Renée Knight in 2015, which became one of the best readings of that year. Disclaimer is the new must-watch series on Apple TV+, definitely one of the most interesting productions of Fall 2024, and viewers are caught in its mystery already from the first episodes.
However, the plot gradually discloses its complexity, and episode after episode, viewers have questions about what’s happening. What happened to Catherine on that trip to Italy many years ago? Who’s targeting her, and why? What’s the mystery that seems impossible to reveal? Many aspects of Disclaimer need to be explained: this full plot recap will guide you through the vision of the whole series, now that all episodes are out. Let’s go!
Apple TV+’s Disclaimer explained: a full plot recap
When Disclaimer begins, we follow three parallel stories that take place on two different timelines. The first is about the trip to Italy Jonathan made when he was young, he was first with Sasha, but later he continued it alone; the second is about Catherine today, a successful journalist married to Robert, with a seemingly perfect life (although her relationship with her son Nicholas is broken); and the third follows Stephen, Jonathan’s father, grieving the loss of his son and his wife in the present.
The three storylines are deeply connected, and we discover it very soon in the plot of Disclaimer. On that trip years ago, Jonathan met Catherine when she was young: her son Nicholas was only four years old, and they were alone in Italy, as Robert had to return home early for work. Something happened on that trip, but things aren’t clear in the beginning: there is a set of photos portraying Catherine in provocative, erotic poses during that vacation. Those photos were taken by young Jonathan and then found by his father Stephen in the present, together with the manuscript of the book his wife wrote after Jonathan died. “The Perfect Stranger,” a mysterious book Jonathan’s mother wrote as an act of revenge.
After Stephen reads the manuscript, he decides to continue his wife’s revenge plan: he self-publishes the book, then sends copies to Catherine and his family so everybody is aware of its content. The disclaimer is clear: the references to dead and alive people are intentional. That’s why Catherine is shocked the first time she reads her book: using her words, the book reveals how bad a person she is, bringing up a story that was buried in the past.
Many aspects of this story still need to be explained by the plot of Disclaimer, and we will progressively guide you through them in this recap. What really happened on that trip? How did Catherine end up naked, posing for Jonathan? How did Jonathan die, and why did Catherine lie to the police? Ultimately, what’s Catherine’s unconfessed sin?
This is the real open point in Disclaimer. In episode 3 and 4, we see several moments of Caroline and Jonathan together in those days many years ago, but are we sure that’s how things really happened? Or is it an altered version of the events, the way other characters in the story think it went, the way it’s written in the book? As long as the series doesn’t disclose the solution, we can only stick to the facts: we know Jonathan saved Nicholas’ life on that trip, but we still need to learn more details. We know that Robert is deeply disappointed by Catherine after discovering the photos, but he still doesn’t want to hear what happened from Catherine’s words. Nobody does.
The truth is revealed only in the last episode when someone finally hears what Catherine has to say. It’s true, Jonathan drowned, Catherine saw it and didn’t do anything to save him, for a simple, shocking reason: the night before, Jonathan broke into her hotel room and raped her for hours, threatening to kill her and her son if she didn’t go along with it. For the whole series, we went through the image of Catherine as a woman who felt guilty for what she did on that trip, but her guilt was about how she dealt with her son almost drowning and how she felt after Jonathan was dead.
That allows us to form a totally different opinion about Catherine. When Robert hears the truth from Stephen, he will feel sorry for how he managed all that, never questioning the information he received, never allowing Catherine to explain. For the whole series, Catherine has been surrounded by people who didn’t waste a minute trying to understand both points of view: they all despised her immediately, believing the book and Stephen’s words.
That’s why Catherine decides to divorce her husband. In the end, Disclaimer leaves us with the feeling that justice has been done. Stephen will even find proof in Jonathan’s photos about Catherine’s version: in one of those pics, we can see Nicholas as a young kid, watching her mother in bed with Jonathan, confirming that something very wrong happened that night.
The TV series Disclaimer managed to transpose the book in the right way, allowing us to experience the final plot twist and even guiding us in interpreting the characters and the events fairly. For those who haven’t read the book, we suggest fixing that soon: even knowing how the story ends, it will be a pleasure to read it.
